The present invention relates to marine propulsion drives, and more particularly to a drain assembly for draining water from the engine compartment of an outboard motor.
Outboard motors typically include a power head housing or cowling defining an engine compartment for an internal combustion engine. The motor cowling oftentimes becomes partially submerged for a short time as, for example, when the boat comes down off plane, when the boat is launched from a trailer, or during heavy wave conditions. When the motor cowling becomes partially or totally submerged, water may enter the engine compartment and accummulate at the bottom wall of the motor cowling. Thus, it would be desirable to provide a device which would drain any accummulated water from the motor cowling while not allowing ingress of water into the engine compartment should the motor cowling become partially or totally submerged. This is especially desirable for outboard motors carried out behind a boat wholly aft of the boat transom since the motor cowlings of these outboard motors usually are somewhat closer to the water than those mounted directly on the boat transom.
Various types of drain assemblies for outboard motors are known, and attention is directed to the following U.S. patents relating to such arrangements:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Inventor Issue Date ______________________________________ 4,403,972 Bland et al Sept. 13, 1983 4,518,363 Bland et al May 21, 1985 4,533,331 Bland Aug. 6, 1985 ______________________________________